Copenhagen is one of my favorite cities, not least because it has some of the world’s finest restaurants and excellent coffee. So this summer, I got to stay two full weeks in Denmark’s beautiful capital. The first week was spent in a big house with a bunch of friends and at a nearby gym, training all day at the BJJ Globetrotters summer camp – with a daily break for brunch of course.

I had been to Hamburg a couple of times before, but I never really spent much time there. All of my visits were very brief, like hanging out a few hours at the bus station on a 24h trip from Copenhagen to Bern. Or just visiting for a few hours to see a football game. This time, though, we had four full days to really see things, do stuff, and – most of all – eat things. Four days still aren’t very long, but we had a terrific time and actually saw and did a ton of things. We rented a beautiful Airbnb apartment right next to Planten un Blomen park and very close to the bustling Karolinenviertel and alternative Sternschanze area.

In early 2015, I went to Gothenburg, Sweden, for a semester abroad. I had a great time and met some great people. Luckily, we were able to sort of keep in touch within one small group of friends that was formed there. I’ve seen some of those friends a few times within the last two years, but this spring, we decided, it was time for a reunion. We settled on a house close to Warsaw, Poland, which we found on Airbnb (and later on Facebook). Unfortunately, not everyone could make it in the end. The house was just as beautiful as it had looked on the internet and we pretty much had our own little lake with a boat and a bridge, a little forest, and a huge sort of patio on the water.